Wally Johnson, back during 1946, created the markets for both scaffold towers and aerial work platforms all by himself. He did this by starting a business that became UpRight. Mr. Wally Johnson was an extremely gifted mechanical engineer who hailed from Berkeley, CA. He stumbled upon access machinery when he began looking for a solution to painting his home.
Mr. Johnson found it hard to search for capable scaffolding when he started a house painting project. Existing scaffolding was not able to deal with the uneven terrain on his land. After being extremely discontented with his options, he decided to design his own aluminum scaffold tower along with adjustable legs.
The Snorkel Company was also founded the very same year in St. Joseph, Missouri. This small business helped to transform the new elevating boom lift. The equipment was produced for firefighting and rescue work. In less than 2 decades, the technology had developed into self-propelled boom lifts.
During 1977, Snorkel sold its very first self-propelled lift. This particular product line did not take long to become the main business for the company.
Wallace Johnson quickly catapulted to the top of the business with his new scaffold. When he had attained this field, he decided to start all over and make the world's very first self-propelled aerial lift.
During 1972, Mr. Johnson opened a new factory within Selma. There he produced the "Flying Carpet" scissor lift. After this new and exciting machine exploded onto the marketplace, the innovative product soon out-ranked the scaffolding component as the main source of income of the company.
Wallace Johnson passed away during the year 1980. At that time, the company UpRight Inc. was sold but his inventive and pioneering spirit lived on. During 1994, UpRight introduced the world's first micro-scissors. They went on to pioneer the TM12, which is the self-propelled mast lift.